Amazon wishlist from teachers in wealthy schools?
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Anonymous
The main issue is insufficient funding, not the bureaucracy. You are welcome to contribute or not as you deem necessary and worthy. |
Anonymous
And when that’s true I think parents should step up as best they can. But I don’t think parents should forego family vacations, as suggested elsewhere, to help teachers avoid the inconvenience of making supply orders from Office Depot. |
Anonymous
I don’t think that most people are suggesting that. You are under no obligation to donate. Clearly there are teachers who need or want supplies, and there are parents who are willing to buy them, so a list makes sense. But if you don’t want to buy items off the list, just ignore it. Most reasonable people will respect that decision. |
Anonymous
At least one person on this thread suggested parents should forego family vacations to buy things for classrooms. So it’s not something I’ve invented. I think anyone making a gift list should be mindful of the message it sends. Again in an under-resourced school, needs must. But you create a lot of ill-will for teachers by creating an expensive wish list and then saying it’s to avoid ordering from Office Depot (also on this thread) The takeaway is that parents should ask administrators to comment on the lists before buying. |
Anonymous
It’s clear that you feel strongly about this, so perhaps the best thing for you to do is contact your school about specific teachers you feel are abusing the system, and to tell them how that makes you feel as a parent. |
Anonymous
| Lots of parents in wealthy schools don't buy all the supplies. |
Anonymous
Or just fact check whether it’s true the school won’t buy them/has no budget, or whether it’s just more annoying than begging the parents. |
Anonymous
MCPS is on eof the highest funded school systems. Its not insufficient funding, its mismanagement. They should give each teacher $500 or more. |
Anonymous
| My kids go to a title 1 school. They don’t send a supply list for the kids at all. Teachers done post wish lists either. School districts actually do provide all the essentials. Now- the definition of what is essential varies by teacher and parent |
Anonymous
They are trying to make the room comfortable. If walls were bare with only the floor to sit on someone would complain about that, too. Although ds did have one teacher who went way overboard with the decorations. He had a bunch of stuffed animals that had been there for years. It was overwhelming. Fire codes wouldn't allow it anymore. The next year's teacher had a really well organized room. Her husband built cubbies and shelves, she bought bins for every kid. She had a library corner with big pillows to sit on. A lot of parents donated to the library. |
Anonymous
We have different experiences. My last school didn’t provide copy paper, tissues, or cleaning supplies. No pens, lined paper, paper clips, or binders either. I provided all of it myself. We rarely had soap in the bathroom and there was no supply closet. It’s the main reason I’m no longer there. |
Anonymous
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I think the only way to fix this issue is for ALL teachers at a school to make a pact, and only use what the school supplies.
As a former private school teacher, also with a small school provided budget, and a smaller salary, there was a lot of “un-upmanship” within teachers. There were older, married teachers, who worked “to get out of the house”. They had a lot of extra cash, and had the best looking classrooms. Meanwhile, the new teachers, who were struggling to pay off their student debt, and had three other roommates to make ends meet, felt the pressure from admin, fellow teachers, and parents to spend more of their own money. If the whole school went “bare bones”, parents would loose their minds! Teachers could just refer them to admin, or even higher ups. But there are always a few teachers who will sacrifice themselves “for the kids”, and they make the others look bad. |
Anonymous
Oh this is very real. The divide between the teachers with high earning spouses our coming from wealthy families, and regular middle class teachers who are single or have spouses in middle class jobs, can be stark and frustrating, especially if the wealthier teachers make a sport of "beautifying" their rooms and are always one-upping each other. My current school pools funds and materials for classroom decor and upgrades, which is much better IMO. The PTA provides a ton of classroom items like bulletin boards, floor cushions, a laminating machine for making posters and signs, etc., and they also give teachers an annual stipend for additional classroom items (varies in amount depending on their fundraising, usually at least a couple hundred dollars). Also a few years ago they offered to help any teacher unhappy with the industrial lighting in our classrooms create alternative lighting that would be safe and to code, as we'd had issues with teachers bringing lamps that were not always secure or that would overload sockets. I am migraine prone and hate fluorescent lighting, so this was a huge benefit to me. I wound up moving classrooms since then and my new classroom has a better natural light situation so the alternative lighting is less critical (I can just turn off the overheads most days and the room is still well lit, and we just filter with blinds as needed) but that made such a difference in my well being and I loved how thoughtful it was. But yes, it's better when teachers have roughly equal resources within the school. It puts far less pressure on young teachers just starting out who haven't amassed a big collection of classroom items yet, and who have to set up their classrooms only with what is available and what they can afford on their salary. Which is ultimately better for the kids so that you have a consistent experience across classrooms. |
Anonymous
| We know a family with a recent teacher grad. Her mom, dad and younger sister pitched in to help her setup/decorate her first classroom. In what other kind of job would you ask a family member to come in to set up your work space? Also, a lot of this happens outside of contract hours because they are flooded with in-service trainings, paperwork, etc… |
Anonymous
My son is 20 yrs old. He has come into my school 8 times to help me move classrooms in the last 14 yrs. The first time was when he was around 8 yrs old. We have at least two more moves coming up in the next few years. He knows how to put up a bulletin board too! Nobody outside of teaching requires family members to help them at their office. |